UHC's Beehive Archive

Bear River Massacre

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:11:30 -0700

In the early morning cold of January 29, 1863, between 270 and 400 Shoshone men, women, and children were killed by the U.S. Army near present-day Preston, Idaho. This was the largest number of victims in any Indian massacre west of the Mississippi, but because it happened during the Civil War, the event got little attention. This month is the 150th anniversary of the Bear River Massacre, an event that changed the landscape of northern Utah and the fate of the Shoshone people.

Solstice Sun Tunnels

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:49:51 -0700

On June 21, 1976, the day of the summer solstice, New York artist Nancy Holt gathered several friends under the massive skies of Utah’s remote west desert to celebrate the completion of her new art installation. Called Sun Tunnels, the artwork would become Holt’s most iconic contribution to the national "Land Art" movement, and a unique part of Utah’s heritage.

Harry’s Dream - Beaver Mountain Ski Resort

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 15:49:13 -0700

Like many Utahns, Harold Seeholzer loved snow and skiing. But how did this one man turn his personal passion for outdoor recreation into one of Cache Valley’s most notable ski resorts?

Christmas Gift Giving in Pioneer Cedar City

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 15:45:57 -0700

Imagine you live in 19th Century rural Utah. Christmas is coming and your children look forward to a celebration with Santa and gifts. There are no stores, no mail orders. How will you meet their expectations?

Massacre in Nephi: Archaeology of a Mass Grave

Thu, 6 Dec 2012 14:09:08 -0700

In 2006, while digging the foundation for a new house in Nephi, Utah, construction workers uncovered human bones. In fact, seven Native American skeletons were discovered piled in what could only be described as a mass grave. Who were these people? The answer shows how the historic record can be contradicted by forensic evidence, and how archaeology can provide a voice for the dead.

Citizen Activists Derail MX Missile System

Thu, 6 Dec 2012 14:07:34 -0700

When the United States Air Force announced its plans in 1979 to build its new MX Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System in Utah’s Great Basin, it could hardly have anticipated the coalition of concerned citizens that rose up in feisty opposition.

Salt Lake City’s Red Light District

Thu, 6 Dec 2012 14:05:49 -0700

Prostitution is known as "the world’s oldest profession," and was established in Utah by the 1850s. While laws made prostitution illegal, Salt Lake City officials often found it more practical to regulate the trade, rather than try to eliminate it. This week learn how Salt Lake’s Commercial Street 'red-light' district was the target of an unusual cleanup campaign in 1908.

Steen’s Folly: Utah’s Frenzied Uranium Boom

Thu, 6 Dec 2012 14:03:05 -0700

On July 6, 1952, a down-on-his-luck uranium prospector named Charlie Steen made a major strike near Moab, Utah. His discovery led to a massive uranium boom on the Colorado Plateau, a boom that was to make Charlie very rich, but one that also cost many lives.

A Question of Loyalty: Utah & the American Civil War

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:20:30 -0600

The nation is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865. No battles were waged in the Utah Territory, nor did Utah send troops for either side, but Utah’s loyalty in that conflict was of major interest to leaders in Washington.

'Old Ironsides'

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:18:36 -0600

As American sports fans gear up for the World Series, find out how the Salt Lake Tribune used to broadcast baseball play-by-plays to fans gathered in the streets outside the newspaper’s building by way of 'Old Ironsides,' a beloved electric scoreboard resembling a pinball machine.

The United Order of Orderville

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:16:36 -0600

When people hear the term 'communal living,' what often comes to mind is a group of hippies, not a group of 19th Century Mormons. However, the United Order Movement begun in 1874 was a Utopian experiment that thrived for a decade in southern Utah.

The Adventure of Bobby Donohue

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:15:12 -0600

Hear about the adventure of Bobby Donohue, a Park City boy who, at the age of thirteen, ran away to the Philippines to fight in the 1898 Spanish American War.

Japanese Fire Balloons Reach Utah During World War II

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:12:28 -0600

The Japanese bombing of Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II in 1941. But one of the best-kept secrets of the War was a secret Japanese air offensive on the US mainland using fire balloon bombs, some of which actually reached Utah.

Early Education in Utah

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 17:44:19 -0600

The iconic one-room schoolhouse conjures images of western settlers struggling to create educational outposts on the frontier. But how did those one-room schoolhouses evolve into the publicly supported education system we have in Utah today?

Archaeology Underfoot: Salt Lake’s Downtown Fremont Village

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 17:42:51 -0600

Thousands of people ride the Trax line through downtown Salt Lake City every day. As they pass over the intersection of South Temple and 300 West, few realize they are riding over a major archaeological discovery.

Leonidas Skliris: Czar of the Greeks

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 17:41:19 -0600

At the beginning of the 20th Century, labor agents brought immigrants to Utah to work in the mines and smelters, on the railroad, and in the fields. The immigrants were cheap labor for many companies, and the most famous - or infamous - labor padrone of them all was Leonidas Skliris.

The Crossing of the Fathers

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 17:39:36 -0600

This week learn about the arduous Colorado River crossing forged by Spanish explorers Fathers Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Dominguez, which now lies deep within the watery depths of Lake Powell.

Utah’s First Masonic Lodge

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 17:37:01 -0600

The first Masonic Lodge in Utah was constructed in 1859 by American soldiers sent to quash a rumoured Mormon rebellion in the Utah Territory, who quickly found themselves with a lot of time on their hands.

'Hoop Mania' Sweeps Utah

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 17:32:44 -0600

The headline on the September 7, 1859 issue of Salt Lake’s Valley Tan newspaper read 'Progress of the Hoop Mania.' The article that followed did not discuss basketball hoops or hula hoops, but rather the hoop-skirt rage sweeping through Mormon society.

The Jewish Pioneers of Clarion, Utah

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:10:51 -0600

On September 10, 1911, twelve Jewish families arrived in Gunnison, Utah, to establish a Jewish agricultural community. The group was part of the 'Back to Soil' movement, which believed Jews needed to leave the city and live on farms. The Gunnison colony, called Clarion, was one of many established throughout the United States, Canada, and Argentina. As Utahns prepare to celebrate Pioneer Day, it’s worth remembering this brave group of Jewish pioneers who made a home in the Beehive State.

Women’s Suffrage & the Constitutional Convention

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:08:51 -0600

Women's Suffrage - that is, the right of women to vote - was won not once, but twice, in Utah. In 1871, Utah women were the second group of American women to receive the vote, but were disenfranchised in 1887 as part of the federal effort to rid the Territory of polygamy. Women’s suffrage came to the spotlight once more in 1895 when Utah formed a Constitutional Convention to try, once again, for statehood.

The Salt Lake City Bicycle Revolution

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:06:55 -0600

Salt Lake City is recognized nationally as a Bicycle Friendly Community, with more than 80 miles of cycle lanes and a bike commuter population that is four times the national average. But Utah’s capital city was not always so accommodating to bicycle riders. This week learn how frustrated cyclists got organized enough to influence municipal politics, and fought to get Salt Lake City roads paved back in 1901.

Historic Copperton

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:05:23 -0600

Most towns associated with Utah’s commercial mining industry have gone through typical boom and bust cycles, and many are now nothing more than ghost towns. But one mining town in Utah defied those odds. Find out why the small community of Copperton remains an authentic 1930s suburbia.

Bear Lake's Monster Sized Secret

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:03:16 -0600

Like the famous Loch Ness in Scotland, Utah’s Bear Lake keeps a monster-sized secret in its watery depths. Located at the top of Logan Canyon on the Idaho border, Bear Lake has been at the center of 'monster sighting' stories since at least 1868. Is the Bear Lake Monster an historical fact? a fascinating legend? or a complete hoax?

Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Baseball in Carbon County

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:00:44 -0600

During the early 1900s, the United States came into its own as an industrialized nation. Attracted by jobs and the chance to move up in society, immigrants left the Old World for a chance in the New. Lured West by headhunters and labor recruiters, many of them came to work in Carbon County’s railroad and mining industries. Find out how the all-American game of baseball helped these new immigrants adjust to life in Utah during the early 1900s.

The Case of Anne Bradley

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:56:51 -0600

In the twenty-first century we consider political scandals and courtroom drama to be characteristic of modern times. But a hundred years ago, things weren’t all that different. In December 1906, Utah woman Anne Bradley sat alone in a Washington, D.C. jail cell. Her crime? The fatal shooting of her long-time lover, former Utah senator, Arthur Brown.

The Great White Palace: African-American Segregation in Utah

Thu, 3 May 2012 10:39:07 -0600

The venerated Hotel Utah in downtown Salt Lake City has a storied history of hospitality shadowed by the racial prejudice common throughout Utah right into the 1960s. Known in its day as "the Great White Palace," the Hotel Utah hosted Heads of State, United States presidents, and Hollywood greats. Yet when the internationally celebrated opera singer Marian Anderson made a concert stop in Utah in 1937, she couldn’t find a hotel room. Anderson was African-American.

USS Utah Silver Service

Thu, 3 May 2012 10:37:24 -0600

$10,000 is a lot of money today. It was even more in 1909, particularly when it was spent to buy a bunch of silver platters and a fancy punchbowl. But that is how much the State of Utah - with the help of 26,000 of the State’s school children - paid for the Silver Service it presented as a gift to the newly commissioned American battleship USS Utah.

Helen Zeese Papanikolas

Thu, 3 May 2012 10:35:52 -0600

She passed away in 2004, but Helen Zeese Papanikolas is still revered in Utah as an historian whose work made it impossible to ignore the complexities of Utah’s past and present. Throughout her 50-year career, she documented the stories of immigrants and promoted an inclusive view of Utah’s diverse ethnic heritage. But who was Helen Papanikolas? Where did she come from? What is her story?

Intermountain Indian School

Thu, 3 May 2012 10:34:11 -0600

The "I" is fading fast on the mountainside above Brigham City, Utah. Winter snows threaten to erase it for good and with it, the memory of one of Utah’s more significant stories: The Intermountain Indian School, a federally-run Native American boarding school. The Intermountain Indian School opened its doors in January 1950 on the site of the old Bushnell General Military Hospital to serve students from the Navajo reservation, covering southern Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Bushnell Hospital

Thu, 3 May 2012 10:29:59 -0600

By August 1942, the United States had been involved in World War II for eight months. As British forces halted German and Italian advances in North Africa, the Bushnell General Military Hospital opened its doors in the northern Utah town of Brigham City. The hospital changed the town forever.

Stout and Spirited: Utah's 19th Century Liquor Industry

Mon, 1 Aug 2011 16:28:16 -0600

During the late 1800s, Utah had a thriving liquor industry. LDS Church President Brigham Young had no qualms about producing or selling alcohol, which was freely available in the Mormon-owned mercantile ZCMI, and advertised in the Deseret News. Utah was home to fifteen commercial breweries, and Mormons also produced their own brand of whiskey, called "Valley Tan." Such was the trade in alcohol that Salt Lake’s Main Street was nicknamed "Whiskey Street."

Miracle of the Crickets

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:21:08 -0600

The 'Miracle of the Gulls' story tells of the summer of 1848, when clouds of crickets swarmed into the Salt Lake Valley and threatened to destroy Mormon crops and fields. Just as the crickets were about to devour everything in sight, seagulls miraculously appeared, eating the crickets and saving the Mormons from sure disaster. The seagull has been revered in Utah ever since. But, what about the crickets? Hear a new twist on the old tale -- it's the Miracle of the Crickets!

Linwood - the Town that Drowned

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:19:18 -0600

The tiny town of Linwood, in Utah’s northeast corner, was a thriving commercial hub for the booming sheep industry during 1900-1920. The place boasted mercantile stores, hotels, and even a dance hall. Also popular was the Bucket of Blood Saloon where liquor, gambling, and women attracted wild and woolly crowds, including outlaws and sheepmen who liked to party and had money to spend. Linwood was a lively place, but now lays drowned deep beneath the blue waters of Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

My Life on Three Continents: Jewish Refugees in Utah

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:16:36 -0600

The Beehive State has become home to people of many backgrounds and cultures since the first Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. This week learn how one Jewish refugee family journeyed around the world - from Nazi Germany to Shanghai, China, to post-war USA - to find safe haven and a new life in Utah.

What's So Special about Utah's Danger Cave?

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:14:17 -0600

To the untrained eye, Danger Cave near Wendover, Utah, is utterly unremarkable. But ask any archaeologist about this dusty desert cave and you'll soon learn that it is one of the most famous and significant archaeological sites in all of North America. The human history of Danger Cave dates back 11,000 years to a time when people hunted now-extinct animals like the mammoth. The cave is a rare time capsule of valuable scientific information about the people who persisted over thousands of years in the Great Basin desert, and holds the key to understanding Utah's ancient past.

Sex Appeal Sells: The Grand Opening of Zion National Park

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:08:05 -0600

In May 1920, Anna Widtsoe had just turned twenty-one. She and five of her friends were leaving for a week-long, all-expense paid trip to Zion National Park in southern Utah. Their vacation was paid for by the Union Pacific Railroad, which, wanting a cut of the growing tourist trade, spearheaded an advertising campaign to attract visitors to the country’s newest national park. Who better to promote the new park than six attractive young co-eds?

Erosion Control Efforts in Willard Canyon

Thu, 9 Jun 2011 08:37:53 -0600

Why did a bunch of young men from New York spend the summer of 1933 digging trenches in Utah’s Willard Canyon? Decades of overgrazing had exposed the canyon watershed and made it vulnerable to recurrent and disastrous flash flooding. Rescue came from crews working for President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corp, who built miles of terracing in the upper canyon to help keep the floodwaters at bay.

Flash Floods Devastate Willard

Thu, 9 Jun 2011 08:36:14 -0600

Mud. Sandbags. Water down State Street. You may remember the Salt Lake City floods of 1983 and maybe even those of 1952. But did you know about the 1923 flash flood that left the northern Utah town of Willard completely under water?

The Scofield Relief Fund

Thu, 9 Jun 2011 08:33:53 -0600

The Winter Quarters Mine explosion of May 1, 1900 was one of the deadliest mining disasters in American history and brought international attention to the small mining town of Scofield, Utah. The 200 dead miners left 105 widows and 270 orphaned children. In a time before insurance and workers compensation, the relief efforts that followed this horrific disaster showcased community activism and compassion. Utahns quickly moved to create a monetary fund for the widows and orphans called the Scofield Relief Fund.

A Grand Old Lady - Salt Lake’s Ambassador Club

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:31:28 -0600

An imposing structure sporting spires and turrets on Salt Lake City's 5th East is long gone, but its ghosts include those of polygamist wives and a controversial police raid in 1960. This week learn about the captivating and controversial past of Salt Lake City's old Ambassador Club.

'Freak' Smoking Ban Overturned

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:31:21 -0600

Debates about the sale of cigarettes and smoking in public venues are hardly new to the Beehive State. In 1923, massive public protest against a state smoking ban forced the Utah Legislature to overturn the law. The public outcry caught national attention. Calling for the law’s repeal, one critic argued that, "Utah... is being ridiculed from ocean to ocean and from Canada to the Gulf... because of its freak legislation."

Wildhorse Canyon Obsidian Quarry

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:29:10 -0700

Overlooking the west desert in Beaver County’s Mineral Mountains is Wildhorse Canyon, a remote, dry, scrappy place that houses one of the oldest and most important pre-historic obsidian quarries in the Great Basin.

‘Dinosaur Rush’ in Uinta Basin

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:27:26 -0700

During the 1870s, Utah became caught in what some have called the ‘Dinosaur Rush,’ which saw the nation’s scientific community feverishly scouring Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming for dinosaur bones to send to museums and private collectors. Earl Douglass, a young palaeontologist from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, hit the fossil jackpot in Utah’s Uinta Basin in 1907.

Utah State Symbols

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:26:06 -0700

You’ve probably heard of official Utah state symbols such as the beehive, the seagull, and the sego lily. But did you know that the Utah Legislature has provided its citizens with an official state cooking pot, a folk dance, a plaid tartan, and an historic state vegetable?

New Deal Building Efforts in Utah

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:22:23 -0700

As the national debate rages over the federal budget and controversial bailouts, it’s worth remembering the impact of federal spending in Utah during the Great Depression of the 1930s, which hit Utah harder than most states. As Utah endured unemployment rates that averaged 26% throughout the decade, the federal government’s "New Deal" relief efforts provided crucial work opportunities and infrastructure to the hard-hit state.

Celebrating Chinese New Year in Utah

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:27:33 -0700

It’s Chinese New Year! This week learn how celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year have riveted Utahns since Chinese immigrants first came to Utah in 1869, and brought one of their most important holidays, the Chinese Lunar New Year, a 15-day festival that celebrates the coming of spring and marks a time of renewal.

The Glorious Gardo House (Part 1)

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:26:12 -0700

Downtown Salt Lake City was once home to a famously opulent Victorian mansion with an extraordinary history. Construction of the Gardo House began in 1873 on the southwest corner of State Street and South Temple. Built by LDS Church President Brigham Young, its purpose was to host traveling dignitaries, but rumors circulated that it was actually for Young’s favorite wife, Amelia Folsom, and was thus nicknamed ‘Amelia’s Palace.’

The Glorious Gardo House (Part 2)

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:22:54 -0700

The Gardo House, a Victorian mansion in downtown Salt Lake, was once touted as the finest home between Chicago and San Francisco. Home to a parade of notable Utahns -- from Mormon polygamists on the lamb to the West’s most sparkling socialites -- its extraordinary residents played vital roles in Utah's political, economic, and social history.

The Murder of George Demetrakopolous

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:19:30 -0700

In the early 20th century, a contentious relationship existed in Utah’s mining camps between Greek immigrant laborers and the agents of Greek labor padrone Leonidis Skliris, who was known to exploit the men he recruited to work in one of Utah’s most dangerous industries. One late spring morning in 1908, that tension turned to violence. This week learn about the murder of Greek labor agent George Demetrakopolous and the hunt for his killer.

The Ghost Town of Old La Sal

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:51:17 -0700

Ghost towns of the old west are generally relics of the mining industry, but the now-deserted cow town called Old La Sal was once a thriving center of the cattle industry. Situated in the northeast corner of San Juan County at the foot of the La Sal Mountains, old La Sal was first settled in 1877 by more than twenty families who came to take advantage of the exceptional grazing in the nearby mountain range. Find out why old La Sal was eventually stripped of its houses, stores, barns, corrals, and even its name.

Utah Holiday Feasting, Reveling, Surviving

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:48:25 -0700

As you're preparing for the festive season, consider a few vignettes from the 1800s telling how our Utah forebears feasted, reveled, and somehow made their way through the winter holidays.

Founding of the Utah History Fair

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:30:09 -0700

Across the state of Utah, over 10,000 students per year start projects for the Utah History Fair, an academic program that gets fourth through twelfth grade students involved in historical research. The Utah History Fair started in 1980 in the History Department at Utah State University, and for thirty years, has been getting Utah kids excited about history!

Charles Zane's Antipolygamy Crusade

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:27:58 -0700

The struggle between federal authorities and the LDS Church over polygamy reached its fiercest stage in the 1880s. A key figure in this controversy was Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Zane, whose tenure on the bench saw hundreds of people convicted of illegal cohabitation or polygamy. To radical gentiles and anti-Mormons, Zane was a hero. To most Mormons, he seemed a fanatic bent on destroying thousands of families and the Church itself.

The House That Eggs Built

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:25:19 -0700

The economy of Cache Valley in northern Utah began to evolve in the late 19th century from its pioneer subsistence roots to specialized private enterprise. A leading figure in this transition was Hyrum businessman Soren Hanson, who built a massive empire out of eggs.

Slavery of African-Americans in Early Utah

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:31:15 -0600

Though never widespread, slavery of African-Americans in Utah began with the settlement of Mormon pioneers in 1847 and lasted for 15 years until the practice was made illegal in 1862.

Fort Buenaventura - Utah’s First Anglo Settlement

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:22:42 -0600

Find out how a trading post built in 1845 by mountain man Miles Goodyear gives Ogden the distinction of being the first Anglo settlement in Utah.

The Divine ‘Miss B’ - Maude May Babcock

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:27:31 -0600

Learn about tireless teacher, visionary, theatre maven -- not to mention force of nature -- Maud May Babcock, who came to the Beehive State in 1892 and became a lasting force for improvement in Utah. Through her advocacy of "elocution" and "physical culture," she profoundly influenced four generations of speech and drama teachers, professional actors, and civic and religious leaders.

The Beginning of Public Libraries in Utah

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:17:15 -0600

Where do you find books in your community? Does your town have a public library, or maybe a book mobile? October is National Book Month and libraries all over Utah are celebrating with book festivals and activities to help bring readers and writers together. Many of us depend on our local libraries for more than books, but have you ever wondered how public libraries got started in Utah?

Kid Activists Honor the 'Father of Television'

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:14:02 -0600

Learn about a group of school children who fought in the Utah Legislature to win recognition for one of the world's most important inventors... Few people realize that the inventor of the first electronic television was a man from Utah, or that it was a group of Utah school children who ensured recognition of his important legacy. Philo T. Farnsworth was born in 1906 near Beaver, Utah, and when only 16 years old, drew a design that showed how electricity could be transformed into pictures. By the age of 21, Farnsworth had successfully created the first electronic television. Farnsworth died with little recognition for his crucial contribution. In 1985, students and teachers from Ridgemont Elementary School in Salt Lake City decided to set the record straight.

Creation of the Utah Territory

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:11:51 -0600

The lands of the American Southwest - an area now covering California, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah - were ceded to the United States following the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. The problem confronting the United States, however, was whether the new lands should become slave states or free. The union of the nation depended on keeping a balance, and for two years, the US Congress wrestled with the question. Learn how the solution to this problem led to the creation, in September 1850, of a place called Utah.

The 100th Anniversary of the Rio Grande Depot

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:09:44 -0600

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Rio Grande Depot in Salt Lake City and learn how the building has served its community over the last century... The Rio Grande Train Depot in Salt Lake City was built 100 years ago. Over its long life, the Depot has had its ups and downs, and in one close call, even cheated death. At the turn of the 20th century, Salt Lake was a battleground for rival railroads and fierce competition spurred construction of infrastructure. When trains began running through the newly-built Rio Grande station in 1910, they ushered Utah into the modern era.

Vernal's Parcel Post Bank

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:05:51 -0600

Find out why the Bank of Vernal, built in 1916, is nicknamed "The Parcel Post Bank"... The US Post Office allows its customers to mail many things besides a simple letter. But the largest object ever moved through the US mail system was a bank. Not all at once, of course, but brick by brick. In 1913 the Post Office created its Parcel Post Service to ship packages cheaply from door to door. The new service was ideal for rural areas, and the residents of Utah's remote Uinta Basin took full advantage, using it to mail food, tools, auto parts, copper ore, even cement. So in 1916, when William Horace Coltharp faced the task of getting bricks to build the new Bank of Vernal, he naturally turned to the Parcel Post Service.

John Wesley Powell’s First Run of the Colorado River

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 12:55:01 -0600

Find out how John Wesley Powell’s scientific exploration of Utah’s river country turned into a harrowing journey through brutal and beautiful terrain... More than 140 years ago, on August 30, 1869, six men in two wooden boats emerged into open country from the high cliffs and rough waters of the Grand Canyon. They were “blackened, bearded, emaciated, in rags,” and down to their last stash of mouldy flour. They were lucky to be alive. Three months earlier, Major John Wesley Powell and his crew of nine men had put in to the Green River in Wyoming with gear and supplies sufficient for ten months. The aim of the expedition was to explore and map the canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers, which ran through the heart of Utah and the last uncharted lands in the continental United States.

Father Escalante and his Friend Joaquin

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 12:51:52 -0600

Learn about the friendship between Spanish explorer Father Escalante and the Timpanogots Ute boy who was his guide... In July 1776, a group of Spanish explorers set out from Santa Fe, New Mexico in search of a northern route to one of Spain’s colonial outposts in Monterey, California. Led by two Franciscan friars named Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Dominguez, the expedition passed through what is now Utah. Father Escalante kept a detailed record of their journey through this unknown terrain, which provides a fascinating and valuable glimpse into Escalante’s feelings and friendships.

The Pony Express in Utah

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 12:47:05 -0600

Learn about the Pony Express, the western mail route that traversed Utah, and its short but sensational history... One hundred fifty years ago, the Pony Express mail service operated between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. The Pony Express was a business venture of freighting firm Russell, Majors and Waddell, and existed for only 18 months between April 1860 and October 1861. The Utah Territory occupied a central position along the route, and many Utahns played a role as riders, agents, and station managers.

Indefatigable Artist Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:09:35 -0600

Learn about the Utah artist considered to be among the top women American artists -- teacher, dancer, rancher, and tenacious painter -- Minerva Teichert. Artist Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert was born in North Ogden, Utah in 1888. Throughout her life she captured on canvas the great Mormon pioneer story and the story of the American West. Though women artists were not common in the West during this time, there is no doubt that the young Minerva got an early start to her career. When she was four years old, her mother gave her a set of watercolors, and from then on, Minerva considered herself an artist. She carried sketch pad and charcoal with her constantly, a practice she maintained into adulthood. The religious and pioneer stories told by her parents inspired Minerva’s art all her life.

Unsung Heroes and Heroines of Utah Agriculture

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:09:34 -0600

Learn how migrant workers from Mexico have long contributed to Utah’s agricultural success. In 1918, for example, sixty families from Juarez, Mexico, came to work in the sugar beet fields of Garland, Utah, a small town in Box Elder County built around the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company factory. Local farmers had increased their sugar beet acreage, but faced with labor shortages associated with World War I, the company brought workers from Mexico for the harvest.

Utah’s Record-Making Aviator Russell Maughan

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:09:32 -0600

Find out how a native son of Utah made history in 1924 by piloting the first transcontinental flight across the United States in a single day... You’ve heard of record-making aviators Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart, and even the Wright Brothers. But who was Russell Maughan? Born and raised in Logan, Utah, Russell Maughan was a fighter pilot in World War I, and later served as a test pilot for the US Army Air Service. World War I had spurred rapid developments in aviation, and the US government was eager to expand the military and commercial potential of air transportation. Lt Russell Maughan advanced that goal significantly on June 23, 1924 when he beat the sun in a famous dawn to dusk flight from New York City to San Francisco.

What’s for Dinner? Salt Lake Valley’s Prison Site

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 14:19:17 -0600

Find out how a Salt Lake Valley archaeology site holds clues to that age old question--‘what’s for dinner?’ The surprising answer may change the way we understand Utah’s ancient past... For most of us living along the Wasatch Front today, making dinner for our families involves a trip to the grocery store and the use of a microwave. But what if you lived in the Salt Lake Valley 3000 years ago? What would you eat? Where would you find it? How would you prepare and cook it? Answers to these questions were recently found by archaeologists from the Utah Division of State History, who excavated part of an Archaic-era site in the Salt Lake Valley. Called the ‘Prison Site’ for its proximity to the state penitentiary, the place is yielding fascinating clues as to how families made their living here 3000 years ago.

Civic-Minded Women of Kanab Make History

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 14:16:15 -0600

Find out how women in the southern Utah town of Kanab made history, and a difference, in 1912... In January 1912, the southern Utah town of Kanab made history when its newly elected mayor and city council took over governance of the small farming community. It was reportedly the first time in US history that an entire town board was comprised of women. Mayor Mary Elizabeth Woolley Chamberlain headed the board of five women, and their agenda to make Kanab a better place to live gives a glimpse into small town life during this time.

Mark Twain Comes to Utah

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 14:11:42 -0600

Learn about writer Mark Twain’s visit to Utah and the comical encounter he apparently had with Brigham Young...
Mark Twain is known to most of us as the author of such classics as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. A well-known humorist, one of Twain’s earlier books, called Roughing It, contains a wonderful mixture of truth and fiction as he recounts his journey West by stagecoach in 1861. Traveling with his brother, who had been appointed secretary of the newly created Nevada Territory, Mark Twain stopped in Salt Lake City and wrote engagingly of its setting and people.

VJ Day in Utah

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:37:03 -0600

On August 15, 1945, the imperial Japanese government announced its intent to surrender to the United States and its allies, ending the Second World War. In Utah, the statement from overseas sent people into the streets in spontaneous celebration. In Kanab, a street dance, fireworks, and a concert, followed by impromptu horse races at the rodeo grounds, marked the day. "Horses were matched," wrote the Kane County Standard, "and many exciting races were run for the amusement of the celebrating crowd." To the northwest, in Moab, fire engine sirens and a free dance in the county ballroom signaled the war’s end. Utahns were especially happy about the end of wartime rationing. The Moab Times Independent quoted Price Administrator Chester Bowles as saying that "as far as gasoline is concerned the day is finally here when we can drive our cars wherever we please when we please and as much as we please."

Mervyn Sharp Bennion, Medal of Honor Recipient

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:31:13 -0600

Born to a large Tooele County family in 1887, Mervyn Sharp Bennion, by all accounts, lived a typical rural Utah boyhood marked by hard work and more than a little adventure. While still a young man, he escaped two separate encounters with runaway horses. Then in 1906, after passing the rigorous Naval Academy entrance exam, Bennion entered Annapolis where he graduated near the top of his class and eventually found himself posted to the USS California, the flagship of the Pacific fleet. Stints on other ships--including some time as second-in-command of the USS Arizona--rounded out his early naval experiences.
By August 1941, Bennion had risen to the rank of captain and had been given his own command--the Battleship West Virginia, operating out of Pearl Harbor. He was on the ship when Japanese aviators attacked the Hawaiian base in December of that year, and, according to reports, was mortally wounded by a bomb fragment. Yet he continued to command the West Virginia from a cot on the deck, until he finally died from his wounds.

Monticello’s Hispanic Pioneers

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:11:50 -0600

In 1899, Ramon Gonzalez, his wife Guadalupe, and his children Romana and Prudencio, left their home in Dixon, New Mexico, to settle in Monticello, Utah. A wagon carried all their household possessions, while a few head of livestock followed on the hoof.

Boulder Ends Its Isolation

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:09:57 -0600

In June 1940, the residents of Boulder, Utah, turned out to celebrate the completion of the first all-weather road connecting their small town to the rest of the state. Since its settlement, Boulder had been a relatively remote outpost on the western margins of Garfield County. Supplies had to be packed in on horses or mules. Even the mail had to be picked up once a month by townsfolk willing to make the trip on horseback to Escalante. Of course, when the influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919 finally reached south-central Utah, Boulder’s seclusion ended up being a boon as it enabled town leaders to institute an effective quarantine and keep the flu at bay.

Grace Oshita

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:07:45 -0600

Shortly after the United States declared war on Japan following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Grace Oshita’s father was picked up by the FBI and detained as a suspected enemy alien. Only a few months later, Oshita herself, along with the rest of her family, was removed from her San Francisco home, her neighborhood, and her high school, and sent to live at California’s Tanforan racetrack. One of several thousand Japanese and Japanese Americans forced to make a temporary home among the racetrack’s converted stables and makeshift barracks, Oshita still remembers the lack of privacy and primitive conditions she had to deal with at Tanforan. But the racetrack was really just a temporary stop for the Oshita family. Their final home for the next few years would be Utah’s Topaz Internment Camp.

Utahns Protest the Vietnam War

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:04:04 -0600

In October 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, more than 4,000 Utahns took to the streets of Salt Lake to protest the Nixon administration's continued deployment of US forces in Vietnam. Part of the nationwide war moratorium movement, the rally was organized by a group calling itself the United Front to End the War. The protesters met on the campus of the University of Utah to hear speeches and hold a teach-in, then they marched down South Temple, turned south onto State Street, and ended up in front of the Federal Building, where G. Edward Howlett, leader of the city's Episcopal Diocese, read out the names of Utahns killed in Vietnam. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, up to that time it was the largest peace gathering in Utah history. That same day, about 250 supporters of the Nixon administration held a counter-demonstration at the City County Building, where Salt Lake County Water Commissioner Jake Garn--later elected to the US Senate--encouraged what he characterized as the state's silent majority to continue supporting US involvement in Vietnam. Politicians in Washington were making decisions best left to the military, warned Garn, and if the US pulled out without a clear victory the more than 40,000 lives already lost in the war would mean nothing.

Salt Lake City's Car-Racing, Record-Breaking Mayor

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:59:41 -0600

On Labor Day 1950, Utah native Ab Jenkins broke a bundle of national and world speed records on Utah's salt flats. He was 67. Jenkins soon became the man to beat on the Salt Flats. In 1932, he got the idea to build a circular track on the flats and race around it for an entire day and night at 100 miles per hour. Members of his crew had to shelter themselves under a sheep wagon, and he was timed using stopwatches. When it was time to start, Jenkins detached his car's windshield, smeared grease on his face to protect it from the elements, and took off. His average speed ended up being close to 113 miles per hour. The popularity Jenkins won from this and other stunts eventually propelled him into the Salt Lake City mayor's office, but his new job didn't stop him from racing. In 1940, the "racing mayor" broke 21 records and got up to 189 miles per hour on one lap of a 24-hour run.

The Serracino Expedition

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:56:23 -0600

In 1811, more than three decades after Franciscan friars Escalante and Dominguez made their way into present-day Utah Valley, another lesser known expedition left New Mexico in search of a rumored Spanish outpost in Ute territory. According to nineteenth-century New Mexican chronicler Pedro Bautista Pino, persistent tales about a lost Spanish colony far beyond the pale of settled territory piqued the interest of New Mexico’s postmaster, Jose Rafael Serracino, and inspired him to put together a search party.

John Muir Visits Utah

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:50:24 -0600

In 1877, naturalist and future Sierra Club founder John Muir found himself in Salt Lake City, working as a correspondent for the San Francisco Evening Bulletin. Not surprisingly, Muir was attracted to the city’s greenery and irrigation system. Salt Lake, he recorded, was a "city of lilacs and tulips." "Nowhere have I seen them in greater perfection ... Scarce a home, however obscure, is without them." Of the city’s system for distributing water, Muir was less upbeat. As City Creek entered town, he wrote, its water was drawn off to feed irrigation canals, which were "all pure and sparkling in the upper streets, but, as they are used to some extent as sewers, they soon manifest the consequence of contact with civilization, though the speed of their flow prevents their becoming offensive."

The Shoshone Colony of Washakie

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:45:43 -0600

In 1880, a handful of Shoshone families and a few Mormon missionaries settled on a plot of land near the Utah-Idaho border and called the settlement Washakie in honor of an esteemed Shoshone leader. The LDS Church put up much of the seed money and land for the settlement, though the Shoshone applied for the land themselves under federal provisions. Over the next 80 years Washakie would be the home of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

The Termination and Restoration of Utah’s Paiute tribe

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:26:09 -0600

On September 1, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed Public Law 83-762, which put an end both to federal supervision over the restricted property of Utah’s Paiute Indians, and to federal services for the tribe. The act’s most vocal proponent, US Senator Arthur Watkins of Utah, earlier claimed that the cessation of services and oversight would free the Paiutes from the “yoke” of federal supervision. For Watkins and other legislators, the Paiutes were being liberated to take care of their own affairs. Ironically, though, the government retained the potentially profitable rights to minerals under the Paiutes’ land.

Massacre at Table Point

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:20:49 -0600

In the winter of 1850, following a pitched battle on the banks of the Provo River, the remnants of Utah Valley’s Ute population scattered, hoping to escape an inflamed local Mormon militia. One cluster of Utes, led by a man known by turns as Old Elk and Big Elk, made for Rock Canyon, east of where Brigham Young University now stands, but they were quickly overtaken by their pursuers who poured lead into their ranks. Big Elk was killed along with several others in his party. While Big Elk was being pursued toward the mountains, a second militia company dispatched from Fort Utah (today’s Provo) marched south, eventually encountering scattered bunches of Utes near Peteetneet Creek. "Here," wrote one historian, "the violence shifted from warfare to killing." After disarming a large band of Utes at Table Point near the southern edge of Utah Lake, the militiamen shot them down in cold blood. But it was the brutal and senseless act that followed the slaughter that is most chilling. According to multiple historical sources, both Big Elk and the Utes gunned down at Table Point were beheaded and their skulls taken as trophies.

Manuelito

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:14:08 -0600

Born near the Bear Ears in extreme southeastern Utah, the man known to whites as Manuelito and to the Navajo or Dine as Man of Dark Plants Emerging and Holy Boy became one of the last Dine chiefs to resist white territorial incursions onto his people’s traditional lands. As early as the 1850s, the Navajos clashed with US Army troops in the Four Corners region, but it wasn’t until General James Carleton arrived in Navajo country in 1862 that the Navajos found themselves engulfed in full-scale warfare with the US government.

How Antelope Island Got its Name

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:06:35 -0600

In the fall of 1845, the famous American explorer John Charles Fremont crossed over the Rocky Mountains into eastern Utah bound for the Great Salt Lake. Two years earlier, he and a small party of men had probed the lake’s brackish waters in a rubber boat, camping on the island that now bears his name. Now he was headed back, intending to discover more about the body of water he called the Inland Sea. Upon reaching the lake the second time, Fremont set about investigating the region’s ecosystem. He marveled at what he called the incrustations of fine white salt that practically covered the lake’s southern beaches and the insect larvae that called the salty beach mud home. Perhaps the most interesting story to come from Fremont’s 1845 visit to the Great Salt Lake, however, comes from the explorer’s trip to the long, almost peninsular island near the lake’s southeastern margins. Area Native Americans had told him he could easily ride his horse across the sandbar that linked the island to the shore. Taking them at their word, Fremont took his guide Kit Carson and a few men and rode across the shallows to the island, recording later that the water never reached above the saddle-girths and that the floor of the lake was sa heet of salt resembling softening ice, into which the horses’ feet sunk to the fetlocks. When they finally reached the island, the party found grass and water, as well as a considerable herd of antelope, a few of which Fremont and his men killed for food. When they at last left the island and returned across the sandbar, they were accosted by a local Indian man who claimed all the antelope on the island were his and they would have to pay for the one’s they killed. Fremont, not wanting to anger the man, gave him some cloth, tobacco and a knife to make up for the dead antelope-and to the island he gave the name of the beasts that roamed it. It became Antelope Island.

Samuel Newhouse

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:04:19 -0600

Samuel Newhouse hit the ground running when he arrived in Utah in 1896. Born in New York to Russian-Jewish parents, Newhouse had been a lawyer in Pennsylvania before moving first to Colorado and then to Utah to try his hand in the mining industry. Within the space of a few years, Newhouse and his business partner Thomas Weir had netted millions of dollars from mines in Bingham Canyon and established themselves as Utah’s copper mining kings. Newhouse’s newfound wealth allowed him to invest in Salt Lake’s real estate scene and add his stamp to the city’s skyline. According to one historian, the mining magnate was involved in the construction of at least thirty buildings, including the twin Boston and Newhouse skyscrapers on the south edge of downtown. He also donated land for the Commercial Club and Stock and Mining Exchange buildings, two important anchors of what was to become, in the words of more than one observer, Utah’s "Little Wall Street." No doubt part of what Newhouse hoped to accomplish with his own personal building boom was the development of an economic center that could successfully compete with the Mormon-owned enterprises lining Main Street’s north end.

Marriner Eccles

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:01:17 -0600

With the Federal Reserve System so much in the news these days, let’s take a look at the Utahn Franklin Delano Roosevelt nominated to head the central bank in 1934: Marriner S. Eccles. Only a few years earlier, Eccles, the son of Scottish immigrants, had demonstrated his financial and administrative acumen by successfully shepherding a group of banks organized under the auspices of the First Security Corporation through the initial years of the Great Depression. Such skills did not go unnoticed in Washington. As early as 1933, Eccles became a frequent visitor to the nation’s capital, providing advice, attending conferences, and testifying before Congress about economic matters. By 1934, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau had lured the Utah banker to Washington as his special assistant and Eccles immediately became involved in drafting the Federal Housing Act and advocating for public works programs and deficit spending.

The Eagle Emporium

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:56:29 -0600

In 1864, English immigrant William Jennings opened a mercantile business in the Eagle Emporium. The building, which still stands at 102 South Main Street in Salt Lake, is, according to the Utah Heritage Foundation, the city’s "only remaining commercial structure built prior to the completion of the transcontinental railroad."

Elizabeth Wood Kane

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:55:01 -0600

Most students of Utah history are at least familiar with the aid Pennsylvanian Thomas L. Kane gave the territory’s early colonizers. Not only did Kane help Mormon refugees fleeing westward from Illinois in 1846, but he also attempted to mediate between the federal government and the Mormons during the Utah War of the late 1850s. Less well known, however, is the way the Pennsylvanian’s wife, Elizabeth, affected our knowledge of Utah’s past.

T.H. Jefferson’s Map

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:53:18 -0600

In 1849, a map of the California Trail was published by a man named T. H. Jefferson, who, it turns out, is almost untraceable in the historical record. Scholars have been able to pin down the fact that Jefferson emigrated to California in 1846, probably in the group just ahead of the Donner Party, but beyond that we know very little about the man. Jefferson’s use of nautical terms on his map led historian George Stewart to suggest that he may have served a stint as a sailor. Other researchers have even advanced the idea that the mysterious mapmaker was none other than Thomas Hemings Jefferson, the son of Sally Hemings and President Thomas Jefferson.

William Rishel’s Bike Ride

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:36:58 -0600

In 1896, to promote his growing chain of national newspapers, publisher William Randolph Hearst cooked up a wildly extravagant plan to sponsor a transcontinental bicycle relay. Knowing the scheme would require local people to scout the best route, he recruited bike enthusiast William Rishel to investigate the Nevada-to-Wyoming leg of the coast-to-coast course. On his way from Salt Lake to California, Rishel swung north of the Great Salt Lake, but quickly concluded that the northern route was too long to work for the relay. Scrapping that course, he instead decided to follow, at least roughly, the old Hastings Cutoff that many overland pioneers, including the Donner Party, had followed to the West Coast. This southern trail would cut miles off the relay and hopefully speed the bicyclists on their way east from California.

Forts Cameron and Thornburgh

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 12:21:23 -0700

In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant formally authorized the creation of a permanent U.S. Army garrison near Beaver named Fort Cameron. Built to protect white settlers from the perceived threat of Indian attacks, the fort was laid out in a rectangular shape with walls enclosing barracks, a hospital, parade grounds, a bakery, and stables, with the local mountains supplying the black lava rock for the buildings and exterior walls. Equally important on Utah’s military frontier was Fort Thornburgh, which was first established in 1881 near present-day Ouray and then moved to the mouth of Ashley Creek, near present-day Vernal, less than a year later. Following what some have called the Meeker Massacre, where Ute Indians killed a handful of whites near Colorado’s White River Indian Agency, the Uncompahgre and White River Utes were forced to trek from their lands in Colorado to Utah’s Uintah Basin. Believing that an army installation would be needed to keep the Utes quiet, the Secretary of War ordered the creation of Fort Thornburgh.

Italian and German POWs in Utah

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 16:22:25 -0700

As World War II raged throughout Europe and Japan, captured enemy soldiers were sent to the United States and Utah for internment. At its height, nearly 426,000 German and Italian soldiers were interned in the United States. In Utah, prisoners of war were placed in camps located at the Naval Supply Depot in Clearfield, the Deseret Chemical Warfare Depot, Hill Field in Layton, Tooele, Utah Army Service Forces Depot in Ogden, Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham, Dugway Proving Grounds, Logan, Orem, Tremonton, and Salina. Prisoners deemed subversive were sent to Ft. Douglas.

The Salina POW Camp Shooting

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 13:47:37 -0700

At 12:25 a.m. on Sunday, July 8, 1945, two months after Germany’s surrender in World War II, the report of a .30-caliber machine gun shattered the silence in the small southern Utah town of Salina. Private Clarence V. Bertucci, a 23-year-old guard at a nearby prisoner of war camp full of sleeping German prisoners, sprayed the camp with three bursts of bullets. Bertucci fired two hundred and fifty rounds in fifteen seconds before being stopped by fellow camp guards. He had been on duty for less than a half-hour.

The Founding of SOCIO

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 13:01:37 -0700

In March of 1968 the Spanish-Speaking Organization for Community, Integrity, and Opportunity (or SOCIO) officially came to existence. Its bylaws were written in both Spanish and English. Heading the fledgling organization were leaders in the Hispanic community, including Father Jerald Merrill of Salt Lake’s Guadalupe Parish. SOCIO became a statewide organization by the 1970s. It worked on behalf of the Spanish-speaking community to improve fairness in hiring and promotion in jobs, advocated and selected members of the community to attend college, protested ethnic and racial injustice, worked with Governor Cal Rampton to create a Chicano ombudsman’s office, helped start the Minority Advisory Board, and promoted the well being of Utah’s sizeable Latino population. SOCIO worked for the Spanish-speaking community until the organization dissolved 1986.

The Valley Tan

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 13:51:56 -0700

As the Utah War became an occupation of the Utah Territory, Kirk Anderson, with financial backing from John Hartnett, started Utah’s second newspaper, the Valley Tan, targeting Camp Floyd’s military population, as well as the territory’s Gentiles. During that year and a half, the Valley Tan tackled difficult issues related to the Utah Territory, including polygamy, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the unsolved or unpunished murders of both Mormons and Gentiles, the tenets of the LDS Church, and the position of the US government regarding the Mormons of the Utah Territory. However, thrown into those same pages were witty quips about yarn sales, beer, and local theater. The Valley Tan’s writers laced their prose with quotes from Shakespeare, and they commonly employed satire in their approaches to stories. The editorial section allowed for a public sounding board.

Park City Dynamite Outrage

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 14:12:50 -0700

On the morning of May 3, 1894, a tremendous blast reverberated through the still sleeping town of Park City. The epicenter of the explosion, which bystanders compared to an earthquake, appeared to be the Main Street residence of John Bogan. When the dust cleared, neighbors surveyed the damage and found that the long flight of stairs that graced the front of Bogan’s house has been partly destroyed and several of his windows had been, according to the Park City Mining Record, 'shivered to atoms.' The explosion also blew out windows in neighboring homes and scattered debris up and down the street. Suspicion immediately centered on a local miner named John Carroll, whose estranged wife was living temporarily in the Bogan house at the time of the blast. According to newspaper reports, Carroll had an abusive streak that drove his wife and children to take shelter with friends. When Carroll’s daughters returned home to give their father a second chance, he reportedly attacked them with a knife, forcing them once again to take to the streets and seek help from the community.

Plum Alley

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:13:41 -0700

Today, if you find yourself in downtown Salt Lake City walking along Second South past the Regent Street Parking Terrace, you’ll notice a modest brown plaque that marks all that remains of Plum Alley, the narrow lane that used to be the nucleus of the city’s bustling Chinatown. The alley, which ran between First and Second South and bisected the block between State and Main streets, was a thickly settled cluster of buildings, primarily restaurants, grocery stores and other shops, perched along what was once a plain dirt track. White observers tended to see Utah’s Chinatowns, like the one anchored by Plum Alley, primarily as centers of widespread vice and illegality, and attacked the presence of gambling and opium dens in the neighborhood as evidence of a retrograde Chinese civilization. Ironically, however, people from all walks of life, including white middle-class men and women, frequented the alley’s opium and gambling joints. Even a U.S. Marshal, Elias Parsons, landed in court on charges of renting a Plum Alley building to a group of Chinese men for the purposes of establishing an opium den.